JWG

By appointment to H.M. The Queen

December 23rd, 2008

No, we don't have such an appointment.

While eating some Carr's Whole Wheat Crackers¹ I was musing about the By Appointment to H.M. The Queen on the box and wondering how you get it and more important what happens when the Queen dies or abdicates.

The Royal Warrant Society issues them. The most significant criterion is that you have to have done business with the Grantor for at least five years. The Grantor can be HM The Queen, HRH The Duke of Edinborough, or HRH The Prince of Wales. I also read that when the Grantor dies the Royal Warrant expires after 5 years. Seems to me there is a timing problem since it would take 5 years before the new sovereign can apply, but what do I know.

Another important a question suppose that a firm has a HRH The Prince of Wales appointment. Now if the Queen dies and he becomes king does it easily or automatically convert to a HM The King?

The RWS site doesn't completely explain how a firm loses its appointment but they do list some factors. (Chivers Jam used to have it but no longer does. I wonder what they did - probably something to do with ownership changes - oh yes I just read that in 1999 Chivers became 100% Irish owned. We still buy it when we can find it).

----1. Carr's Whole Wheat Crackers are called Correct Crackers in our household because once when rsc saw whole wheat crackers on the list he bought some of different brand and which were different (the Carr's are slightly sweet which goes well with jam). I said what he bought were incorrect, thus...

One evening, I attended a dinner party at the home of my friends Steve and the Fabulous Carlene. And Carlene said, "I asked Steve-O to pick up some crackers for the brie, and he got these," and she pointed to some inferior crackers, and I'm not talkin' about white trash here. And she was very frustrated.Steven said, "Well, dearie, what should I have gotten?"And she looked at me, and asked, "What would you have gotten?And I said, "Carr's, of course."And she looked at Steven and said, "See? See?!"

I just bought two boxes of Carr's (regular, and some new thing) a couple days ago, before we got snowed in, but I'm not fussy about crackers. Okay, my favorites are Triscuits - I still remember the early 1970s jingle fondly.

The hat that almost caused me to miss my flight from Heathrow came from a shop appointed to the Queen and the Princess of Wales. (Where can I get a new elastic for that hat without returning to London?)

The list of who can issue warrants is all sovereigns and spouses, and the heir(ess) [apparent|presumptive]. So the late Queen Mary used to issue them too, as did the more-recently-late Queen Mum. Queen Mum's warrants expired in 2006, five years after her death.

In the normal course of events, the present Prince of Wales/Duke of Rothesay will become King next. His (Prince of Wales) warrants will immediately convert from "by appointment to HRH the Prince of Wales" to "by appointment to HM the King", since the merchants will have been supplying him with goods and/or services for the previous five years. The coat of arms associated with them will change as soon as the warrant-holders can get new stationery.

I recall some ancient brand of something - Scotch, I think, but it might have been boot-polish - was displaying warrants on labels "by appontment to her late majesty Queen Victoria" along with an unbroken string of 'em to the current monarch. I guess the Warrant Association has tightened up since then.

A warrant can be removed if the relationship sours. Harrods (owned by Mr Al-Fayed, whose son died with the late Princess of Wales) lost theirs when he got quite rude to the royals. I don't think there was any love lost on either side.

Thank you for that, because I did wonder about that while we were having tea the other day. I kinda thought it was just some gimmick that had no substance behind it, but now I know that it is indeed kosher via the Royal family.